Dear LPG readers,

 I have a story with a moral to tell today, and I hope the point becomes apparent as I go along…

 Recently, I had a terrible day because I got up late and missed a phone call from my friend. We were supposed to meet up for shopping, and I was really looking forward to it. I finally got through on the phone and invited her round. In my frustration, I took a look around my living room and realised just how untidy and unready it was for any visitor. I had left myself very little time to sort it all out, and I hadn't even had breakfast when I sat down to take stock of how much I had to do and how little time I had to do it. Things were not going very well at all, and after my quick tidying session, I waited and waited. Hours had passed since she was going to arrive, and, after all my efforts to be ready for her, she had not even called. I tried to phone her, but there was no reply, and my day was getting worse and worse. Some 4 hours later, my friend called me back to say that she was not going to be able to come.

By the time I got her phone call, I was distraught until she explained. 

As she was driving to visit her daughter, who works as a childminder, she received a call asking for a bit of help, and my friend changed direction immediately. She had found a one-year-old who was in her care, unconscious and not breathing, after a short morning nap. CPR was involved, and an ambulance was on the way when my friend received one of those ‘MUM, HELP!’ calls. By the time I got her call, the child’s parents had been called and were with her, and the little one was in the hospital recovering well, but her parents were told that the odd fit might become something they would all have to get used to in the future. She had been called in to look after the other two while her daughter accompanied the young one to the hospital. 

I was relieved, but then I realised I wouldn't see her that day, so I decided to phone my neighbour. She has reached the ripe old age of 98 and no longer gets out, so a chat with her would do us both a bit of good. I tried the phone and got no answer, so I got my keys and coat and shut my front door behind me. 

She is only a few doors down, and lives with her son, who has quite advanced Parkinson's disease, and when I rang the bell, there was no answer at first. They have one of those remote answering bells, and eventually her son was able to let me in. I found the old lady sitting on the floor, but conscious and able to tell me that she had fallen while trying to get to the kitchen. She had been unable to let her son know and was stuck, but she was able to tell me what had happened. I got another neighbour, and together, we managed to get her into a chair. She insisted that she was all right, but it was then that she mentioned a headache, and my first thought was that she was concussed. I ended up calling her daughter and 111, and she spent a couple of days in the hospital recovering. 

When I got home after all that drama, it occurred to me that when you think you are having a bad day, there is always someone else having a worse one. The fact was that both of the people who were affected by a bad day on the same day that I thought so badly about were still able to tell the tale. Their version of bad days had left mind lookin fairly good, but in the end, I realised it had been a pretty good one. Both my friend and I felt privileged to have played a small part in improving our bad days. 

Had the child been discovered a couple of minutes later, who knows what would have happened, and I feel that God must have put me at my old neighbour’s front door to make sure that she was discovered. 

I met up with a friend who had planned to visit me a couple of days later. She told me how inconvenienced she felt when she couldn't get an answer to her phone call to me, but we each had very positive stories to tell about that same day. We agreed that there had to be a reason why a day that had started very negatively for each of us ended on a positive note. 

I think that one day has taught me that there is always someone having a worse day than yours, and even though that particular day was a bit extreme for all parties involved, there is good to be found in every person’s version of any one particular bad day. Even I managed to be involved in something good… 

EN, Lewisham.